


Counting Stars

by shipperslife



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Slow Burn, Time Travel, Western
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-10-23 16:52:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 16,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17687357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipperslife/pseuds/shipperslife
Summary: There's the threat of an alien invasion and when Batman and Superman go on a diplomatic mission that doesn't go so well they are sent to the past and get stranded there.





	1. Chapter 1

The day had started pretty much normal for Clark. He woke up, fought an alien dog that was chasing a woman, went back to his apartment, had breakfast with Lois, went to work, got screamed at by Perry, had lunch with Lois and talked about their wedding, then answered a distress call by the League.

Batman – Clark rolled his eyes – was calling every member to the Watchtower because he couldn’t handle his paranoia alone. “Possible large-scale invasion of the Earth” was the reason. The same reason as last week, when there was a portal close to Jupiter bringing Tybaltians looking for a vacation. He hoped it would be over soon, he still had to finish an article or Perry would kill him.

When he got to the watchtower everyone there had the same bored face. There was no invasion, everyone knew that except Batman. The man believed every single alien life was a threat. Even Superman was treated as a possible invader. Oddly, Batman had a strange liking to J'onn J'onzz.

“Late as always” Batman remarked as Superman walked into the room. The man of steel rolled his eyes. There wasn’t even a time for the meaning, he came as soon as he could. “Let’s begin by pointing out that even though you might thing this is an unnecessary precaution, every precaution is necessary. When dealing with aliens we never know what to expect” he looked directly at Superman, who felt an urge to just leave the room and forget about this ‘Justice League’ thing. “And every spaceship in our Solar System is noteworthy and inspection worthy. Having said that, I’d like you to know that my analysis of these alien ships came up with some very interesting results.”

The screen behind the man lit up showing the sun and a horde of spaceships, some clearly drawing something out of the sun.

“These are Dokris ship, as the Martian Manhunter has found out” a small corner smile appeared in the bat’s face, so small that Superman doubted that anyone else had seen. Such a favoritism. Aliens were ok as long as they were from Mars? “They are not an alien race known for their conquering and fighting skills, but they do have a few colonies that were inhabited by intelligent life. This to me is proof enough that they could be interested in an invasion.”

Flash raised a hand and Batman made a signal for him to speak.

“What exactly are they doing to the sun?” He asked.

Batman looked behind him.

“We don’t know for sure, I’d guess they are taking solar energy in a more advanced and even plasmatic way, but this isn’t even the most threatening part. First, it seems to be causing an unbalance in the sun’s core. And second, the outer ships are close to Venus and” The image changed to a projection of the solar system, the alien ships were exaggeratedly large and spread between Mercury and Venus’ translation path there was also an ellipse between Mercury and the sun. “Somehow, they are producing strange gravitational fields and waves around the Sun. The technology is too advance for me to explain or even understand, but my guess is that these fields are a shield for their base around the sun and, somehow also a portal. These ships between Venus and Mercury are the ones producing and expanding the field, but they have a way to navigate it, we have observed a ship from inside passing through to the outside in mere minutes, which would be impossible without a portal. It’s even messing with Mercury’s translation. We believe it can’t reach Earth because it would require an enormous amount of energy, but since they have the sun as a source we can’t be sure. The scary part is that they have set this all up in 78 hours. And most of the ships around the sun have gotten here today through the portal ring.”

The room was quiet. It did look serious, these guys were controlling gravity, teleporting and had the sun. If they went for the Earth it would be a difficult fight.

Wonder Woman sighed. “And what can we do with them so close to the sun?”

“Well…” Batman leaned on the table, looking exhausted and defeated – this was serious. “I think that for now what we have is diplomacy. We don’t have fighting spaceships, we can’t take them out in space. We have to gain knowledge and time to know how to strike them if they are hostile. And I do believe they are.” Again, the image on the screen behind him changed to a design of… something. “This is a bomb we’re working on, it’s compact and works in space and its rough conditions. It is for now our Plan B. If the aliens turn out to be hostile and we have to take them out in space we’ll use those fighters that can move in space and our spaceships to get to them and place these bombs. If we do this now then it’s suicide. Even if we do this later it’ll be a tough mission, we’ll lose many fighters, but for now it’s all we have.”  
“No!” Superman spoke, all the heads in the room turned to him. “We won’t be losing anyone or working in a suicide mission. Diplomacy is the best choice, maybe they just want a little bit of our Sun’s energy. I volunteer myself to go on the mission to talk to these guys. They may be alien, that doesn’t mean they are bad.”  
“No, it doesn’t. But even if they just want our Sun’s energy, they’re draining it at alarming rates and in a way that may be dangerous to us. Disturbing planets’ orbs and the Sun’s core. Even if they don’t plan on invading Earth, they are a threat to the balance of the Solar System…”

“Well, so when do we leave?” Superman cut him off.

“What?” No emotion reached Batman’s face but Clark could tell he was fuming.

“When do we leave to talk to these guys? I mean I could go right now.”

“That’s not how this works, we have to discuss our course of action with everybody, that’s what being a team is. This is going to be one of our toughest battles yet.”

“We have a course of action. Talk to these guys, see what they’re up to and then discuss what to do.” Superman stood up.

Batman’s mouth was pressed in a line. “Fine” the Dark Knight said “All those in favor of sending the aliens a radio signal and meeting them please raise their hands.” The room was full of raised hands. “And all those who want to volunteer for the mission please raise your hand.” The only raised hand was of the Martian Manhunter. “Okay then, everyone else can leave. Meeting dismissed.”

Everyone looked relieved. There could be spaceships in the Sun but they all had their problems to deal with and they were on Earth and happening right now. As they left the room, only Superman, J’onn and Batman stayed behind.

“I have a plan to gain leverage. It’s very dangerous, but I think it could work.” Batman said.

“Another suicide mission? You should really talk with Amanda Waller about how to make a suicide squad.” Superman retorted.

“What is it?” J’onn asked.

“You, J’onn get inside the ship as one of them. This way we can gain even more information and some sort of leverage.”

“It sounds good. I could do it.” J’onn answered.

It sounded insane, but Clark preferred to keep his mouth shut.

“Ok. I’ll send them the radio signal. As soon as you’re ready we leave.”

\---

The flight was long. They approached the ship that had responded to them after Batman was sure it wasn’t some war ship ready to take them. It was dangerous. It always was, but the Dokris would be insane to try something with a Kryptonian so close to a yellow sun.

They boarded the alien ship cautiously. There were six Dokris waiting for them at the end of the hangar. The Dokris looked like the aliens in bad science fiction movies. Little green humanoid figures with big heads and skinny arms wearing a blue uniform. As they landed on the runway the aliens walked closer.

Batman and Superman exited the ship and met the Dokris. Using his senses, Clark estimated there were a total of 500 Dokris on board. Most of them didn’t carry heavy guns. There was no visible trap around them. They seemed amicable.

“Greetings, Terrestrials. I’m General Otrop Ohlev of the Dokrian Empire. We received your message. What are your concerns?” The tallest of them spoke with a shrieking voice.

“Hello. I’m Batman of the Earth’s Justice League. We’re here to discuss what are your interests in our Sun and our Solar System.”

“Oh, Mr. Batman, our interests are quite simple. We want to invade the Earth.” The Dokrian said in a friendly shriek as if it was nothing.

Superman and Batman shared looks. They were ready to be the first line of Earth’s defense, even if they were outnumbered and if it meant they would die right there, in the middle of space in an invader’s spaceship. The Martian probably already had enough time to get out of their ship and infiltrate the enemy’s. Batman had already pressed the distress signal in his belt. The JL would know an invasion was coming. What they had to do was fight and cause as much damage as they could.

“No need to get all up in arms about it. We’re not barbarians. You may take your ship and leave. We’ll not spill the blood of our guests.” As General Ohlev said that the six high ranking Dokris left the hangar, only remaining some mechanics, small pilots and engineers. Some of them had the nerve to wave as Batman and Superman took their ship and exited the aliens’.

The Bat hadn’t said a word. He had a serious expression that meant he was concentrated evaluating the situation. Clark knew better than to intrude, still as he sat and buckled on the co-pilot chair he said “Well… That went well.” Batman gave him a look of disdain.

As soon as the words left his mouth so did his breath. He heard a loud noise and then a deafening silence. He was gasping for air as if it had been sucked out of him but he couldn’t hear his own gasps. His head felt like it was being smashed and squeezed at the same time. His vision went black and the last thing he saw was Batman screaming but he didn’t hear anything. He could feel he was also screaming but he heard nothing also. The silence was nothing like Clark had ever experienced. The blindness too. He had no senses. His last sense to be gone was his feeling of himself, of his body being squished into nothing. Then nothing. The Dokris had attacked and, in their defense, they did keep their promise to not spill blood. The last thought Clark had was that there was no blood because they were becoming nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

Clark woke up looking at a blurry face. Pretty blue eyes were staring at him but he couldn’t focus on anything else. He didn’t feel pain, he didn’t feel anything. He saw stars – beautiful flying sparkles - moving around the angel looking over him. He smiled.

“Is this heaven?” He was sure it was. He felt free of everything. He knew he should feel bad to be dead, but he didn’t. He felt liberated. He didn’t have any desires of the flesh anymore. Only of the soul. The angel frowned.

“No, this is just space, Superman.” The angel’s weirdly raspy voice responded.

Aah, yes. Superman. How they used to call him when he was alive. He was no longer Superman. He was nothing. He was made into nothing. Oh. The Dokris. The Dokris made him into nothing and a part of him felt a rush of adrenaline at the thought of them invading the Earth. But a bigger part of him was thankful. Heaven was beautiful. Superman was no more. For once he didn’t worry about anything. He used to be so worried. Worried about the Earth, about his mother, about Lois, oh… Poor Lois… Such a young widow. But he wasn’t worried about it. He didn’t know what worrying was anymore. He closed his eyes because the stars around his angel were flying around too fast.

“Superman! Superman!” He heard distant shouts of his name. When they became clearer he heard the raspy voice – his angel. He opened his eyes and the image wasn’t so blurred. He recognized that face, from his distant past as Clark Kent. He searched within his soul’s mind to find who it was.

“Bruce Wayne.” He smiled at the absurdity. “Bruce Wayne is my angel.”

“What? Superman, you’re not dead.”

“I’m not. I’m nothing.”

“Does nothing have an arm?” The Wayne angel raised an arm with a long sleeved blue shirt just like the one he used to wear when he was something. When he wasn’t free.

“That’s not mine.” He said knowing that he was free of all those bodily things.

“That’s not yours?” The angel scoffed. “Then move your fingers.”

“I don’t have fingers.”

“You do, they’re right here!” Bruce Wayne waved the arm at him.

“Hi.” He smiled at the greetings. It reminded him of how he had hated the Dokris’ wave when they were leaving. Why had he hated it? Waves were always kind. The Dokris were kind enough to give him the last goodbye of his old life and to give him his new eternal life. What a kind species.

His angel smacked him with the arm and he felt it distantly. “Move your fingers, dammit!”

“I don’t have those anymore.” He repeated.

“I don’t… I don’t know what to do anymore.” The look of agony in his angel’s face made him feel worried for the first time in a long time. He had already forgot how it felt like.

“You make me worried, my angel”

The look on his angel’s face changed to an empty expression he had seen somewhere before, but never on Bruce Wayne’s face nor his angel’s.

“Wow. That was gross. Please Superman, tell me you can still feel your fingers” The angel massaged the hand he was holding. He felt it. The touch was so lightly but still so powerful.

“What is Bruce Wayne doing in Heaven? How did you die and become an angel?”

“Pleeease, Superman! I can’t deal with this Heaven bullshit right now!” The angel’s voice got raspier as he got angrier. “I need to know if you can move your fingers!”

“I don’t know how to do it.” He smiled trying to get his angel happier. And then he realized, he couldn’t smile with his soul. He was still in his body and that realization came with pain, too much pain and cold all around him. He flinched. “How am I alive?” He squeezed Bruce’s fingers. “And what is Bruce Wayne doing in space?”

Bruce took his hand out of Superman’s hand trying to hide the pain the grip caused. “Well, something weird happened. But the Dokris didn’t kill us.”

“Us? What do you mean?” He sat up and looked around. He had somehow ended up lying on one of the beds in the ship, there was some black cloth thrown in a shelf and when he looked to Wayne he saw what he was wearing. Batman, without his cape and cowl. “Wow… I… You’re… Wayne’s Batman?”

Wayne rolled his eyes. “Listen, if you’re feeling better come see something.”

Clark got up and followed Batman to the monitors of the ship.

“Look. We haven’t received new images of satellites, only the ship’s cameras, telescopes and radar. There’s nothing we can see on the sun, close to Mercury or Venus or to us. To ours senses they’re gone.”

“So, what happened?” Clark asked still dazed by whatever the Dokris had done to them and still surprised that Bruce Wayne was Batman.

“I have a few theories, but none are confirmed. We have to go back to Earth to find out.”

 “Can they just be gone? How long since they’ve gone? How long was I out?” Many questions were going through Clark’s mind rapidly. Then he realized “Did you… Did you also go through what I went through? What was that?”

“Calm down Superman. I don’t have half of the answers. They appear to just be gone, but they could have just camouflaged or be hidden, space is a pretty big place and they seem to move fast, for all we know they could have already taken the Earth and landed their ships there. They could be really close to the Sun and we just can’t see them, many possibilities. And yes, I was out also. I woke up a few hours before you. I don’t know what that was, I’ve never felt anything like that. And the system went through some sort of reboot during our time out. It’s January 1st 1970 8am in the ships’ computers. That’s the epoch date and it’s supposed to update to the real time when we connect with other reliable signals, like the Watchtower’s. This means we aren’t receiving any signal from the Earth. We have no idea how much time has passed and the Dokris may have taken over.”

“Wow.” Clark leaned against one of the control panels. “We have to go back.”

“I’m working on that. Our position is a bit uncertain…”

“We’re lost?!” Superman yelled.

“I mean, we can guide ourselves using our equipment, but we’re not receiving signals from Earth so we don’t know exactly where we are. I’ve already started to run an algorithm to analyze the stars and planets around us and to set a course to Earth but it might take a while.”

“Wow. If this wasn’t the end of the world this would be so cool: Superman and Batman lost in space.” Batman’s glare was worth it.


	3. Chapter 3

Clark had eaten and cleaned himself – they didn’t have actual showers because Batman called them “expendable luxuries” so instead he used wipes to get a bit cleaner. He got into the cockpit where Wayne was trying to do something in the computers – probably another algorithm.

“Hm. So you’re Bruce Wayne?” That had been bugging Clark the past hour.

“So I am.” Wayne answered without taking his eyes of his task.

“And you were so secretive about identities and all that, why did you take your cowl of?” He knew he was overstepping when Batman stopped what he was doing to give him the bat-glare.

“The world is ending and you want to be secretive?” Batman raised an eyebrow – it was even harder not to feel intimidated now that the bat had a bat-frown to go with his bat-glare.

“The world has ended before.” Clark retorted crossing his arms to look intimidating also.

“Well, I was lost in space with no signals coming from Earth, no sign of the aliens that knocked us out and I thought you were dead. I took my cowl off.” Wayne was monotone and unexpressive during his answer, but Clark knew he shouldn’t push it.

“Ok, Mr. Wayne, nice to meet you, I’m Clark Kent.” He offered his hand for Wayne to shake. But the man just turned back to the computer.

“I already knew that.”

“Of course.” Clark muttered under his breath.

“Oh no.” Batman got up and went to sit at the captain’s chair. “We have our location, we’re on our way back to Earth. Strap yourself, we’re about to accelerate.”

Superman did just that. “What was the oh no for?”

\---

“Oh, no!” Clark couldn’t believe what he was seeing. They hadn’t landed but they had images on the cities bellow them. Where Metropolis should be there was only a small city. “What happened?”

Batman fiddled uncomfortably but was not surprised.

“Remember how Batman and Superman lost in space was cool? Wait till you hear about Batman and Superman lost in time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short one and it might take a while till I post the others, but... Thats it heh I'm sorry


	4. Chapter 4

“Now you’re cracking jokes?” Clark answered trying to not freak out. The Earth was about to be invaded, only thing was it was not about to for them because they were thrown back to the past God knew how many years. “What year is it and how are we getting back?”

“Clark, I just told you, we’re lost and this time it’s real. We can find out what year it is, judging by Metropolis I’d guess the early 1900 but there’s no way we can go back.”

They were silent as Bruce landed the ship in a forest clearance a few miles from the city.

“What do you mean?” Clark finally said.

“I mean that we’re stuck in this time.” Bruce answered with an emotionless face, but Clark could see the sadness in his eyes.

“No, there has to be a way!” Clark got up from his seat. “We have to go back! I mean, forward. I don’t know… We have to. I’ll get married to Lois in two months and I can’t be in the 1900 forever!”

“It’s hopeless, Clark. I’m sorry.” Bruce looked down, his face was dark.

“There has to be a way!”

“There is a way” Bruce finally said and Clark’s heart skipped a beat in hope. “We have to build a time machine. Do you know how to build one of those? Didn’t think so.” Bruce’s rude tone was making him even angrier.

“So the Earth is damned and we’re all as good as dead to everyone we once knew?” Clark was pacing around in the ship’s cockpit. Bruce remained silent. “No! I refuse to believe that. There’s always a way, there has to be!”

“We could freeze you and leave for future generations to find. You’d probably survive that and a century would pass in the blink of an eye.”

“Ha ha. You’re getting really funny lately. Listen, this here isn’t the end of the world, but the end of the world is probably happening right now and it is wher- when we should actually be.”

“Superman, I’m well aware of the gravity of the situation, but unless you have suddenly developed the ability to time travel, there’s nothing I can do.”

Clark wasn’t ready to accept being defeated, to accept that he was dead to everyone he knew.

“If the Dokris can do it then other people can do it too. How did they do it to us?”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “I’m not a time-specialist or a physicist. I don’t know!” Clark didn’t answer to that and his silence made Bruce continue. “I don’t know how they did it, but I think it involves the weird gravity fields they were generating. They were time portals probably and their ship somehow pushed us into one of them.”

“So there might be a portal still up there! We have to go back.”

“Highly unlikely, it was probably a one-way portal and even if it was still there we wouldn’t know how to navigate and we’d end up in some other time, now, Superman, please, be quiet for a moment! I’m trying to think.”

“Oh! Go ahead, we don’t need to talk or assess the situation or anything like that, noooo…. We’re only a team when _you_ want, ‘cause when you don’t then Batman can do it all by himself!” Their argument was getting heated and the stress was through the roof. Superman wanted to punch Batman’s face and scream at him, but he did neither of those things as Bruce got up the chair and went to a sleeping room, locking the door behind him. Superman thought about busting it open and screaming at the other man but what good would it do?

Instead he went to the kitchen sitting at the counter. The kitchen there was a sad place. Small and not at all crowded, there was a silver refrigerator and a microwave, no stove, a really small sink and counters with an embedded dishwasher. There were four foldable stools kept under the counter, so now Clark was sitting in a lone stool in a small kitchen feeling sorry for himself.

He would never admit it but he cried. What if it was true? What if they could never make it back? He would never see Lois or his mother ever again. He still hoped for a solution but he knew they were lost. What year was it? Clark wondered. Maybe he could live long enough to meet the people he left, but could he live long enough to save the Earth from the Dokris’ invasion? Would he be too old to do anything?

He heard the door of the ship opening and when he went there Wayne was completely out of his Batman costume and had some sort of equipment with him. “What will you do?” Clark asked and got no response as Wayne went outside.

The dark-haired man started running a part of the equipment along the ship’s shield. “So, you’re really not talking to me now?” Clark crossed his arms, he wanted to just fly away and go back to the sun, maybe he could find a portal on his own. “Really mature. But that’s no surprise coming from Bruce Wayne.” Batman still didn’t respond. Clark had to start to walk along with him to keep his bickering going on because the ship was getting between them. “You might not have a family anymore, but I do. I have a wedding and I want to get out of here as soon as possible and we can only do that by working like a team which is impossible if we’re not talking.” He didn’t realize but he was screaming at the end.

“Oh you’re right Superman, I don’t have a family so I want to stay around for as long as possible! Get over yourself! Can’t you see that I’m working? We can talk but I don’t want to take two steps and have to explain to you how walking works! Nor do I want to hear about how you have a wedding and you’re the only person on the planet that has a family and that needs to get back to the right time!” He knew he deserved every word that Batman said but they still made him angrier.

“And what are you working on?” He asked just to receive a deadly bat-glare.

“I could explain to you how I’m trying to collect our frequency to see if it can be used to track back our journey or send some sort of message that only time travelers could pick up but then you’d just ask more questions and I’d have to explain to you how everything works even some things that I don’t understand myself and what good would that be? See you’re already slowing down my pace.”

“I could do it for you. I’m faster” Superman went to take the equipment from Bruce. “What would I need to do?” Bruce finally backed down and gave him the device.

“Go around the ship and use this part against the exterior of the ship.”

He did just that and came back after a few seconds.

“See? How hard was that? I can help if I know what’s the plan, if we talk.”

“Ok. The plan is to try to make a time beacon and wait for some time traveling being to give us a ride.”

“Great… And how long do you think that this beacon takes to be built?”

“Considering that I have no idea how to do it I’d say it’d take some time.”

“Awesome” Superman sighed walking back inside the ship.

“I have another idea, you could work on that.” Bruce said behind him. “You could place time capsules around the world with a coded message telling the League where and when we are so they can rescue us.”

“Great! That’s actually… really great! I think it could work. I’ll go right now!” He almost just flew away into the sunset to do it but Bruce interjected.

“No, wait, we have to decide where we’ll stay first.”

“Well, right here, no?”

“No, we can’t, it’s too close to our homes we could mess some things up. We’ll have to find a city to actually live because it can take a while and we can’t live forever in that ship and it has to be one with minor consequences.”

“Okay then! Let’s find our future past home!” They reentered the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm terrible, I want to post all the chapters I have ready instead of keeping a steady posting pace. There'll probably be long periods of time where I don't post.


	5. Chapter 5

“The computer analyzed the stars and by the looks of it it’s between 1850 till 1900 and it’s definitely October. I was thinking we could go west, if you know History you’ll remember that the American frontier is expanding. We could settle in a small town, go unnoticed and work on finding a way to go back or just stay somewhere uninhabited and you know, try to find a way back.” Bruce Wayne laid back in his chair crossing his arms. They had flown for about an hour and landed somewhere Clark didn’t know.

It was still weird talking to the man behind the cowl. Distracting to say the least.

“Can’t we stay in orbit like the Watchtower?” Clark suggest hoping to not sound stupid.

“We’d run out of resources and it could be dangerous.” Bruce sounded like someone explaining something to a child. Clark felt stupid.

“What do you want to do?” Clark asked.

“If we stay away from people we cause less damage. But we’ll still need food and resources. And we’ll need to hide the ship.”

“What are you saying? We stay in the outskirts of a village?”

“I think that’s best. But it’s still risky you know. We need to stay somewhere hidden in plain sight. I don’t know how to find such a place. Maybe a cave or a canyon.” Bruce changed the screen to a map with reds and greens of somewhere.

“What’s that?” Clark asked hating himself right after. Batman would go all “you slow down my pace with your questions” on him again.

To his surprise the man just answered absent mindedly: “It’s just the Rocky Mountains, I figure that’s our best chance. It has lots of parks in our days so the ship can be hidden for a long time and it has caves and canyons.”

“Do you want me to look around there?” Clark wanted to feel useful.

“Sure, we need someplace wide enough for the ship.”

“Right away.” He said moving to the door.

Batman was by his side in a second. “And Superman, be careful out there. They might not be as accepting of a flying _alien_ as we are.”

It was such an unnecessary blow that Clark thought about burning Batman with his laser eyes right there and hide the ship just to get rid of the evidence. Instead he flew away angrily.

Ha! Bruce accepting of aliens, yeah, right. The man treated Clark like a dog. Superman was seeing red before his eyes, he tried to concentrate on his task but he could only think of going back there to show Batman _his_ acceptance of the masked vigilante. He landed fuming on a plane in the middle of nowhere. The ship was on the top of a mountain that Clark could still see even in the dark of night. He hadn’t gone far but with his blood boiling he had to try to calm down before anything else. He could fly up to the sky and try to be near the sun as he used to do, the only impediment was that the sun and space was making him angrier.

What he really needed – who he really needed was Lois. She would calm him down. They could have been sitting by the TV, her legs on his laps as he stroked them pretending to watch whatever when in reality he’d be watching her. Paying attention to every detail, from the beat of her heart to the bat of her eyelashes. He missed her.

The optimist in him wanted to believe that pretty soon they’d be rescued. But it was the pessimist in him that was speaking louder. As his anger was replaced with sadness and feeling sorry for himself, he let his body fall on the ground on his knees.

“Please God, please Rao. If you exist please let me go back in time for our wedding. Please let me go back to see Lois in her wedding gown.” He prayed into the air. “I love her. Please. Please.” His mind was filled with horrible scenarios of Lois waiting for him, feeling what he was feeling. Wondering if they’d ever see each other again. “I need a sign. Please a sign that we’ll see each other again. That we’ll…”

His prayers were interrupted by a loud gunshot. Clark immediately stood up. He flew to where he’d heard the sound. As he approached, he landed just out of sight of the people gathering around a guy on his knees. Another guy was shot dead on the ground. He wanted to intervene but he didn’t know if he should. He could hear Batman talking about the “repercussions” in his head. As he started to move quietly towards the crowd, he saw the gun in the hand of a guy who seemed to be the leader of the group. Before he could decide to intervene or not, the shot was fired.

It was a slap in his face and honor to not use his speed to catch the bullet. He turned away feeling defeated by not stepping up and flew back to the ship. The door was still open. He stepped inside and found Bruce leaning over a screen in the ship’s panel.

“So how did it go? Found something?” The man said without turning around.

Superman’s anger was bubbling up again, probably because he was so stressed out or maybe it was because Bruce was so dismissive of him, like he was his servant. “Why do you treat me like trash?” His words resonated on the room. It was silence for a while until Bruce closed a few things in the computer and turned around.

“What are you talking about?” The Dark Knight crossed his arms watching Clark carefully.

“I mean what was that that you said to me when I left?” Clark held his gaze.

“I just said you should be careful not to be seen and ruin the whole future of Earth.”

“You didn’t say it like that.” Silence fell once again. Bruce stood there, arms crossed, not denying it. Clark wanted so bad to confront him, ask him why he hated Superman, but he knew that wasn’t what was hurting him right now. “You’ll be glad to hear that I wasn’t seen. And a guy is dead now because of it.”

“What happened?” Wayne asked with no emotion.

Clark smiled. “Like you care” he said under his breath only to say louder “I heard a shot and when I went there it was what appeared to be a gang, they had guns and all that. They had shot a guy and I stood there as they shot another one.”

“You did good. How would you explain being bullet proof?” It was like another slap to his face.

“Good? Letting another man die is good for you?”

“Well, it’s better than ruining everything in our future.” There was a pause. Clark had to control himself not to hit Batman. “Do you want to do something about it?” It was so unexpected that he almost missed it.

“Like what?”

“We could go there and see what happened, if it’s really a gang and they’re outlaws I believe we can arrest them.”

Clark laughed. “And then what? Get the bounty?”

“Yeah” Bruce said matter-of-factly. “We could use the money.”

“Oh. We’re bounty hunters now? And how would we do that? Just walk into a city and deliver the men tied in a lasso to the sheriff?”

“We just need some sort of ID I think, I could manage that… And you’re thinking too much ahead, we don’t even know if they were the criminals.”

“I’m pretty sure they were, shooting an unarmed man on his knees doesn’t seem very lawful.”

“So, what do you want to do about it?” Wayne asked again. Clark thought over it for a second.

“Let’s bounty hunt.” He said still feeling defeated.


	6. Chapter 6

They arrived at the scene where Clark had been earlier, hiding behind a few trees. The night was dark but they could see the group illuminated by a fire, the two bodies lied on the ground not very far. The men were sharing a meal, there were eleven of then, only two were girls. One of the girls looked like all the other men, her pistol in her belt, hat on her feet, talking and laughing loudly. The other one looked much smaller, if Clark had to guess he’d say she was 15. She was obviously uncomfortable, she had on a white dress and her face was burned by the sun, she obviously didn’t belong.

“You were right, they are outlaws.” Bruce said and Clark wished to rub in the other man’s face that he was right just for the thrill of it, instead he maintained his composure.

“What makes you say that?” His instincts and the two bodies were enough for Clark’s verdict but he wanted to hear Wayne’s reason.

The man looked at Clark like he was stupid. “Because they are dining around bodies and talking about robbing a train?”

Clark hadn’t paid much attention to their conversation, they used a lot of weird words that made it confusing for him. Bruce seemed to pick up on that. “When they say dangler it means the train and crummy is the caboose.”

“So what do we do? We have to take them all out without showing my powers.”

“You could just stay back and let me handle it.” Bruce suggested.

“Ha! As if! Let’s go and punch them.” As Clark started to get up from where they were a hand stopped him.

“Don’t rush in like that. You’re not in this alone.”

“You were the one talking about going alone!” He hated Batman’s hypocrisy.

“I suggested, I didn’t just get up and went there.”

“We’re just going to wait here making plans forever then? They are right there! We just need to go and get them.”

“We need a plan of action first.”

“Fuck your plans!” Clark’s voice was so loud and the place became so silent that his voice echoed far away.

The men around the fire got up and had their pistols in their hand.

“Who’s there?” The one that seemed the leader spoke to the bushes.

Wayne had his eyes closed and his face in disgust and disappointment.

Clark couldn't think of what to say and in a moment of exasperation he yelled back “Justice!” Bruce opened his eyes to give Clark an icy glare. “What?!” He whispered to the other man.

“Is Justice going to come out nicely? Or are we going to do this the fun way?”

“Fun way, please.” Clark answered and Bruce seemed ready to die from that dialogue.

As he heard the shot he moved to stand in front of the more fragile man. The bullet ricocheted off his chest.

“Stop wasting bullets on the trees!” The leader commanded to whoever had shot. “Kill the fire!” As the fire went out, the men started blending into the trees,  Clark saw his opportunity, Bruce too, in a second they were at the crooks. A few shots were fired, but in less than five minutes they had them all surrendered. Except when Clark count there were only nine of them on the ground.

“Don’t come any closer or I’ll shoot her!” Clark turned around and saw by the moonlight the leader of the gang with the young girl in his arms, a gun pointed at her. “If you go away, I let her live.”

Clark put his hands up and slowly walked closer.

“Stop right there!” The man shouted cocking the gun. A shadow passed behind him.

“How will I know you’ve kept your promise?” Clark asked stalling.

“You’ll know when you don’t see her brains on the ground!”

A hand went for the gun on his hands, with a kick in the knee and a pull on the criminal’s arm Batman threw the man on the ground. The girl stepped away, crying.

They then occupied themselves with tying together the men, some were unconscious, some were quiet and some were throwing insults – those received a cloth over their mouth.

Clark went over to the girl to talk to her. She was sitting with her arms around her knees, crying and flinched as she saw the man approaching.

“It’s okay. We’re the good guys, we won’t hurt you.” She didn’t seem to relax. “What happened to you?”

“They took me from my home. It was horrible!” She didn’t say anything else.

“Where are you from?” Clark tried for a conversation again.

“I’m from Redbear.” The girl was quiet again. “But if you take me to any town, I’d be so thankful.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t just leave you here.”

“Hey” Bruce called, he was standing by the horses, Clark noticed a lantern in his hand and some papers. “Come here.”

Clark followed Bruce to some of the woods.

“I found these documents here, it appears that these men that were killed were coming here for a heritage from their uncle. They aren’t from around; their birth certificates are from New York.” Bruce handed Clark a piece of paper. “How would you like to be Eric Monroe?”

Clark took the document in his hand and analyzed it, Bruce lit the small lantern he was carrying. Eric James Monroe, born in New York in 1842. “Have you found out what year it is?”

“It’s 1868” Bruce said.

“Wow. Missed the Civil War by just a couple of years.”

Bruce laughed. “Wouldn’t want to mess _that_ up. Listen, I’m Darrius Monroe, your older brother, we’re heading to Redbear to get our heritage from our beloved uncle Steve, we came across a gang of outlaws with a sweet girl and that was it. We just need a place for our ship.”

“Redbear? That’s where the girl is from” Clark turned around to go to the girl and felt a hand on his shoulders.

“Superman, be careful with how you talk to her, don’t forget you’re Eric now.”

Clark rolled his eyes and turned around. “What’s that supposed to mean? Do you think I’d go there and just blurt out to her that I’m a time traveling superpowered guy?”

“I don’t know, you tell me!” Bruce crossed his arms “Or better, scream it at me and hope that the girl won’t listen in this very noisy night in the middle of nowhere!” His words were said in a whisper but they cut just the same.

“Why are you complaining? It all worked out just fine! You’re alive because of me, ok?”

“Oh, thank you for saving me from the risk you put me into.” Bruce started walking back to the place they were but now it was Clark’s time to put a hand on his shoulders. The alien pulled the man and pushed him against a tree.

“Listen, _Bruce Wayne_ ” he spit the name in a whisper. “I don’t know what’s your problem with me and I’ve been lenient for the last year or so with your unnecessary distasteful commentary but I won’t be so lenient from now on. I’m sorry you didn’t get to use your _planning_ skills tonight to deal with a bunch of crooks when I could just easily get them all without breaking a sweat. _Fuck your plans!_ ”

Bruce’s eyes squinted in a dangerous glare. “Oh, wow! How strong and powerful you are! If you’re so powerful go back to your planet and save it, if you’re staying here you aren’t going to expose 19th century humanity to your kind!”

“My _kind_?” He got closer to intimidate and see fear in those angry eyes. He only saw more anger. “Why do you always have to call me an alien? As if I wasn’t raised on Kansas.”

“What do you want me to call you? Human? You aren’t.” Bruce said almost emotionless but the bite and the anger were still there.

“I want you to call me Clark” he let go of the other man. “And to stop with this alien bullshit.”

“Or what, alien?”

Clark closed his eyes for a second, breathing to let go of the rage. “I’m so done with you.” He said quietly but they were close enough for Bruce to hear. “After we go back that’s it. I’m done with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey what do you think of Darrius as a disguise name for Bruce? IDK I thought it fit so well is it just me?


	7. Chapter 7

They were sitting around the fire that they had made. It was late, they should probably be sleeping but Bruce and the girl were talking, getting to know each other. The girl was named Bethany, she’d never heard of Eric and Darrius Monroe, they’d made sure first before introducing themselves to her. Bruce was using all his playboy charm to get her talking despite the shock, the bodies around and the gang tied up on the side.

Clark didn't feel like talking to her after Bruce's unnecessary warning on how to talk to her. So he let them both talk by themselves. 

“So Uncle Stevie, were you familiar with him?” The dark men said leaning to get closer to the fire.

“Stevie?" The girl paused for a second trying to think. "Oh, Steve _Monroe_? Like you guys?” Bruce confirmed. “He’s your uncle? How unfortunate. I’m sorry, but the man was evil _and_ creepy.”

“Yeah? We didn’t have much contact.” Bruce poked the fire with a stick.

“Yeah. He was one of the richest men in Redbear, he found a mine in his property, it was small and it’s closed now but it made him _rich_ rich. You coming for the funeral? Because I think they have already buried him. I mean, I’m not quite sure what day today is but I think it has been a month since the funeral.”

“Oh no.” Bruce smiled charmingly. ”We’re here for heritage, we’re his next of kin.”

“Oh my!” The girl looked between them. “Then you guys are going to be rich. And with the bounty for me and the Raw Mountain gang!” She smiled like a child. “So rich.”

Bruce smiled back at her. “Well, God provides to the faithful, doesn't he?” Clark raised an eyebrow at Bruce, he'd never taken Batman to be the faithful one. “Now, kid, it’s time to go to bed.” He got up. “Eric!” He called and Clark also got up. “Do you want to take the first or the last turn at watching the camp?”

“First.” Clark grunted hating to speak with Bruce.

“Great!” The other man went to one of the horses and got the saddle and what seemed like a blanked, he offered them to the girl and got himself another saddle but no blanket. They lay down on the ground and soon were sleeping, leaving Clark all by himself to watch the criminals.

Clark also laid himself down on the bare grass. He looked up to the sky. October 1868. He’d never imagined he’d be looking at such a sky. The stars were brighter than they were in Metropolis and the moon seemed huge, illuminating the landscape, cutting the edges of mountains against the sky. It was so beautiful, yet so sad.

He kept wondering about Lois. What was she doing? Was she worried? Would he come back to his own timeline a few minutes after he’d left or a few days? A few weeks? Months? Years?

The thought terrified him. He breathed in. He’d be okay. Everything always worked out in the end and he was there with one of the smartest people he knew. Batman could be a jerk but he was smart and he’d find a way out.

As the night went on, he studied the stars and paid attention to the sounds he could hear – it was only snores and wild animals. When a few hours had passed he wondered if he should wake Bruce up. He didn’t really need sleep but he was feeling tired. Before he could make a decision though, he heard movement. It was Bruce getting up. Clark got up too.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a second before we change shifts?” The man said to Clark with an even raspier voice. Bruce’s hair was messy in a way the other man never thought they could get. He felt a strange urge to fix it at the same time he found it adorable.

“Sure” He didn't really want to talk but he went with it anyways. They walked a few feet away from the camp. “What is it?”

“I’m sorry, Clark” Clark’s heart skipped a beat at hearing his name coming out of Batman’s mouth and the softness it was said with. “I guess I’m stressed and I wanted to let it out on someone and it so happened you were the only one around me. I won’t call you an alien if you don’t like the word.”

Clark was quiet for a minute, absorbing all that and thinking of what to say. “Thank you” he said finally. “And I’m sorry too, I’ll try to stick more to the plan and not ruin it.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it” Bruce started going back to the camp only to turn around and say “You can call me Bruce too, you know. Or maybe just Darrius when people are around.”

Clark smiled “Ok, _human_.”


	8. Chapter 8

Clark tried to sleep. He turned on the ground multiple times. It was definitely not comfortable sleeping with his head on a saddle and his body on a blanket directly on the dirt floor. He knew though that his sleeping conditions were not what was impeding his sleep, the real reason was that he could not stop thinking and feeling terrified about being in the past.

After what seemed like an hour he gave up and got up. Bruce stared at him.

“Can’t sleep?” The man asked turning to the horizon. Clark noticed that Bruce had changed into new clothes – actually they looked older. They were tight all around him but still looked decent, it was just that it gave him a nice contouring of his muscles. The clothes were still dark as the ones that the man had on before, but the hat he was wearing was white and dirty. He looked like the handsome yet conflicted leading man at a western movie.

“It’s tough to sleep on the ground.” Clark sat by Bruce’s side looking to the sky, it was almost dawn, but he could still see so many stars. “Nice clothes.”

“Thank you. I got them from the brothers’ bag” Bruce pointed with his head. “Maybe you should do the same. To fit in better.”

Clark made no movement to the bag and they stood there in silence.

“Don’t you think it’s weird? Morbid?” Clark broke the silence.

“Another man’s clothes?” Bruce asked.

“Another man’s life. We’re taking all that was theirs.”

“I think it’s survival.” Clark sighed. He knew it was.

“What if it’s not? What if we’re ruining everything?” That question had been on his mind since the moment they crossed paths with the gang.

Bruce pondered. “What do you mean?”

“Aren’t we changing the future if we save the girl? Will we be able to go back?” Clark hated to ask that question. He’d forced Bruce to take action and he couldn’t stand by as a gang of outlaws went back to their way with an innocent girl to do as they pleased. Of course he didn’t regret doing this, but he feared the consequences.

“There’s no way to know” the other man said. “But if it makes it easier, there are many theories that time has a way to ‘fix itself’ and since we’ll only be altering things in a frontier small settlement maybe it will be alright. Most likely Redbear doesn’t even exist in our time.”

Clark hugged his knees, thinking about that in silence. After a minute Bruce got up, the sun was finally rising.

“We still have to be careful though.” Bruce said and went to the horses to start preparing. Clark got up too to help.

As the sun had fully risen and Bethany had woken up, they got the horses and started on their way to Redbear. They were lucky that the gang had a wagon, which they used to carry all the ten members it was tight but they made it work and attached other four horses to go faster. There were still two other horses from the dead brothers and another three from the gang. Clark managed the wagon, since he had more experience, Bruce rode the only stallion with grace and control that only a rich white boy that could afford riding classes had on a horse, carrying on a leash another two. Bethany was mounted on a pinto mare that was on Bruce’s leash. They’d set free the other horse but it still followed them.

According to Bethany they were probably a two-day ride from the town but with the wagon they’d made the trip in three days with only one incident of the captives trying to run away.

As soon as they arrived at the small town with a wagon filled with fugitives the people started to appear on the streets. To Clark it was almost as if the town consisted entirely of a long street of mostly wood buildings. The people seemed surprised and he even heard a woman’s scream. When he looked it was a well-dressed lady that had passed out. A few people were holding her and a small girl was fanning her.

Bethany got down from her horse “Mama!” She went to the lady. “Peppy! Lucy! I’m so glad to see you!” She extended her arms and hugged everyone around her mom as well as she could.

Bruce and Clark also stopped and got down. The people didn’t get closer to them or the gang in the wagon. They must’ve made quite an impression, both much taller than the people around and strongly built, besides having subdued nine dangerous men and a woman.

A man came through the crowd to stand in front of Clark. He was short and a bit fat. “Who are you?!” He asked aggressively.

“Papa!” Bethany went over to him to give him a hug. “Oh papa, they are my heroes. They saved me from the Raw Mountain gang and they even caught them!”

The man looked over to his daughter and to the wagon and seemed awkwardly astounded. “I-I’m so sorry. Oh my! You brought my little girl back! And the bastards that did this! Come, come! We must take you someplace to get rested from such a rough adventure.”

“First let them turn the criminals in, Theodore.” Another man appeared from the crowd, spotting a proud star on his chest. “I’m sheriff McDowney and this is mayor Theodore Gale. Who are you, brave gentlemen?”

Bruce stepped closer offering his hand. “I’m Darrius Monroe and this is Eric, my brother.” As they shook hands the sheriff kept talking.

“Firm grip. Good thing you are the bounty hunters and not the ones with a price on your heads.” He gave a small laugh. “Let’s get you to the station. Boys!” He signaled to a group of guys. “Get those men to their cell and get Drunk Ted out of there.”

They went with the sheriff to the sheriff’s office. It was small building made out of wood and cob walls. There were two jail cells, one had a young man in them. One of the guards unlocked the cell.

“Get out of here Ted! And if you piss on the jail’s door again you’ll start to be known as Dead Ted!” The sheriff screamed as the frightened boy left the station carrying only a coat.

“Won’t happen again!” The boy said. He looked too young to drink or even be known as Drunk Ted but Clark saw that the first place he went as he got out was the saloon.

“That boy…” The sheriff sighed. “Now you two, sit!” He pointed to the two old wooden chairs in front of his desk. “Are you two here only for the bounty or do you have other business?”

As Bruce opened his mouth to answer, the room filled with a cacophony of sounds. The prisoners were being brought to their cells and their gag had been removed, many were cussing and spitting at the guards. The cells seemed to be made to fit two men but in one of them they put the nine men and in the other just the woman.

“Silence!” The sheriff screamed over the prisoners’ complains. The prisoners didn’t stop. The sheriff made a signal and one of the guards came back with a water bucket and threw it in the cell. “If you keep talking like this then the next bucket will not have water and we’ll give you a real reason to complain.”

The prisoners fell silent, the sheriff turned to them again.

“As we were talking, what are your business here? I’m sorry to inform that the bounty for all of these men cannot be collected here, we don’t have the money; you’ll have to go to the capitol to get the governor’s money or wait here for an official to bring it.”

“Don’t worry sheriff, we are actually here for our uncle Stevie” Bruce took a document out of his pocket and gave the sheriff. “We heard he passed away and we came as soon as we could.”

The sheriff inspected the paper. “Oh, Steve Monroe, yes. Then off you go to resolve this.” He returned the paper. “We’ll notify you when we have the money and the execution is probably going to be in a couple of weeks, the trial shouldn’t take long. I’m sorry for your loss gentlemen.” The man got up and offered a hand to shake, Bruce and Clark got up and shook hands with him. “If you need a place to stay these days, I think that Millie’s Saloon would be your best shot.” The sheriff smiled and tipped his hat at them. “Thank you for your work.”

They left the station. The wagon was parked in front of it but the other horses were nowhere to be seen.

“Hey!” A small boy approached them “Come with me, sirs, the mayor wants to talk to you two.” Clark and Bruce exchanged a look and followed the boy to a big building that was probably the city hall. It had notably a different architecture than the rest of the city and a lot more plaster, they walked through a small hall with a few columns on the walls to get to stone stairs that took to a long corridor in which they entered the middle door.

Mayor Gale was sat in a mahogany desk that seemed to be the only expensive thing in the room. “My friends!” He exclaimed when he saw the two men walk in with the boy. Bruce’s expression lit up in a smile but Clark could see that he was hating the situation. “Sit down, please!” He gestured to the only chair in front of him. Bruce sat in it, leaving Clark to rest against the wall by the door.

“As a gratitude for rescuing my daughter Bethany I’d like to offer you the promised reward.” He handed them four notes of twenty dollars. They were the kind that Clark only saw in museums. “Thank you, gentlemen. Your service to this city is appreciated, I hope you will stay for the trials.”

Bruce smiled. “Oh, we’re staying for a few days, yes.”

“Good! Then we can schedule a dinner, I’ll be in touch. And if you need anything, just let me know and I’ll help as much as I can.” The mayor went over the door and gave Clark a cheeky smile as he opened the door. “Do you know where you’re staying? Millie’s?”

“Ah, yes, we were thinking of staying there” Clark answered.

“Oh, yes. It’s very good there, she is very clean. Good to know where you are staying, such strong and brave guys, we sometimes need those around here, but the boys around here only want to drink and be with ladies.” As Clark and Bruce got out of the room the mayor went with them. “Not that that is bad but it is the only thing they want to do… Some are quite studious, though. But they end up becoming city boys in the capitol, what can we do?” They reached the small hall, the mayor turned to Bruce, with his back to Clark. “Farewell, sirs, and, uh, we’ve brought the horses to the corral, I recognize that some of them are yours. The boy will show you the way.” He signaled the boy that had brought them the message. “Hey, John, take them to the horses.”

The boy just showed them the way, it was a kind of stable behind the city hall. There was only a man there, one of the only that were almost as tall as Clark, still a little shorter than Bruce though. He brought them the black stallion and the pinto mare. “Do they have a name?” The man asked in a raspy voice.

As Clark went to answer that they didn’t Bruce cut him off. “Of course, this here is Superman.” He petted the black stallion. Clark could see the humor in it but he wanted to kill Bruce for being so inappropriate and always choosing the worst of times to try to be funny. As the Gotham man looked to him with a smug face, Clark didn’t hesitate to give a smile back and pet the mare.

“And this here is Wayne.” He took the leash.

“Huh, Superman? I’d call him Superhorse, because he is a horse.” The stableman reasoned.

“Indeed, Superman is a horse.” Bruce gave an even smugger smile as he mounted Superman.


	9. Chapter 9

“You know that calling someone a horse isn’t an insult, right?” Clark asked when they entered their shared room at Millie’s. It was the saloon where he had seen Drunk Ted coming in. On the top floor there were rooms for rent. “You do know what it’s slang for, right?”

“I was talking about my horse, Clark, don’t take it personal.”

Clark still wasn’t used to Batman calling him by his name. “Yeah, right. But if you were wondering”

“I wasn’t, thank you” Bruce cut him.

“I wouldn’t consider myself a _horse_ , but” he continued.

“Please God, stop. I was talking about _my_ horse Superman.” Bruce interrupted again. It was nice seeing the man visibly embarrassed, at least he was showing some sort of emotion.

“I’m definitely up there.”

Bruce groaned “Well, you are definitely over sharing.”

“You meant it like ‘horse face’ or ‘dumb as a horse’ I know it, but look who looks dumb now.” Clark smiled victorious. Bruce threw a pillow at him.

“Shut up” he said sitting down on one of the beds and taking his boots off. “Leave me and my horse alone, please.”

“Doesn’t it bother you though?” Clark said laying on the bed.

“What?” Bruce had a phone on his hand that came out of nowhere.

“That it’s not _your_ horse, it’s someone else’s. A dead man’s horse.” Bruce was silent. “I don’t feel good doing this. I think it’s wrong in so many ways that we’re stealing someone else’s heritage, their horses, their identity.”

“I don’t feel good, Clark, but it’s necessary. We’ve talked about this. We need to go back and for that we need to work on ways to go back.”

“Are we though? This whole thing seems like such a waste of time. When are we going to start putting the messages for the League? What if something happens to us?”

“I thought we agreed on finding someplace just like this to live while we work on going back. Wasn’t that the plan?” Clark didn’t respond. “And if you say ‘fuck your plans’ I _will_ find a way to go back and leave you here.” Clark laughed, he liked how their bickering was becoming more playful, he could see that Bruce was making an effort to not be a jerk.

“I’d just freeze myself, a century would pass in the blink of an eye.” He paraphrased what Bruce had said a few days ago. “But what about the mess we’re making here? Bethany, the mayor, the sheriff, the Raw Mountain gang, the whole town… Even Drunk Ted didn’t stay in the jail cell for as much as it was intended.”

“Calm down Clark. It’s going to be okay.” Somehow, he knew that Bruce was telling that more to himself, but the man was good at concealing his emotions and keeping his face calm. “We don’t know if we mess things but we have to hope that we don’t. You seem like a scratched record, I understand that you’re worried and this situation isn’t ideal, but this is what we have to work with.”

“Can’t we just start with the messages to the league?”

Bruce thought for a second. “We’d need the ship.”

“I can go and take it.” Clark offered.

“I could use the remote control also” Bruce cut him off showing off the phone in his hand. “But then where would we park it?”

“Anywhere? Hide it in the mountains? In the woods?”

“I was thinking of waiting till we had the property to put the ship there.”

“What?! Bruce, when will we have the property? It’ll be almost a week by then!”

“Probably more than a week, we need to find a lawyer to start the process.”

“Please, Bruce” Clark would deny it in the future but in that moment he pouted. “Let’s start sending the messages now.”

Bruce tried to look back at his phone and ignore Clark but he couldn’t.

“Fine!” The man finally said. “Go get the ship and try not to mess anything up.”

 


	10. Chapter 10

Clark left the ship in the woods a bit far from the city. He tried conceiving it as much as he could and in the dark of the forest it could almost not be seen. Bruce was waiting for him at their meet spot with a dark look on his eyes that made Clark realize that that was Batman now.

Bruce got in the ship and started working right away. Clark wanted to ask what was being done but felt a bit out of place when he didn’t understand anything of electronics and that was mainly what Bruce was working on. He went to town to get dinner and when he came back Bruce was still working hard. The man didn’t stop for dinner, he’d just take a few bites of the sandwich Clark had brought and keep on working.

After a while of Superman just standing there doing nothing, Bruce finally turned to him to ask him to write a concise rescue message. It was basically a pity job but Clark took it seriously and came up with a simple message with all the information necessary. Bruce then proceeded to record him saying the message. “This is a message to the Justice League, from Superman and Batman, we’re currently stuck in the 16th of October, 1868 in Redbear, Colorado and need help returning to our time.”

Bruce approved and after some time turned from the desk he was working on with a box the size of a shoe box. “I’ve finished the first one.”

“Where should I put it?” The Man of Steel asked taking it from Bruce’s hands.

Bruce passed him the phone he had earlier. “I’ve chosen a few places that might be safe, you might want to take a shovel to bury them.”

Superman took the phone and the package. He didn’t need a shovel. When he came back Bruce had prepared two more. It went like this for a few hours. In total there were seven devices buried in the whole world.

“So what now?” Clark said as he got to the ship exhausted after delivering the last one.

“Now we wait. They could be here any moment now or in our future.”

“How will we know?”

“We won’t.” Bruce looked exhausted too.

“I…” Clark didn’t know what to say, thinking of everything involving time travel gave him a headache and ever since they had been there, he felt like crap. “Nothing we can do know?”

“There’s one thing I’m thinking of working on still.”

“A time machine?”

Bruce gave a small laugh. “I wish. It’s a time message.”

Clark frowned in confusion. “Isn’t that what we just did?”

“No, those were just messages. They are programmed to start playing the day after we left our time and it has the frequency of the JLA’s comms. Now with this ‘time message’ I’m thinking of sending a continuing message through time. Try to even send it to the past, so that any passing time traveler can receive it.”

Clark thought of that for a minute. “How do you send a message to the past?”

“I have no idea.” Bruce answered laying his head on the table. Clark felt an urge to pet him, instead he just put an arm on the other man’s shoulder.

“Let’s go to sleep, maybe you’ll think of something.”

Bruce turned his head glaring a little at Clark’s hand and then at Clark himself. “I hated the bed at that place.”

“Were the Egyptian sheets not up to your standard, sir?” Bruce groaned at Clark as he made an awful British accent. “Or were the goose feathered pillows not fluffy enough?”

“It was mainly the bedbugs that put me off.” The man answered standing up and walking to the door, ignoring Clark.

“Just don’t let them bite you.” Clark followed him out.

“Would be easier with impenetrable skin. I should sleep here, ain’t going to be much sleep anyways.”

“What about the plan? We should keep our disguises, I mean, are you a master of disguises or a master of whining?”

Bruce gave him a really bad bat-glare. “I truly hope that somehow one of the bedbugs bites you, just to teach a thing or two about humility.”

“I’m not the one whining, am I?”


	11. Chapter 11

The sun hit Clark’s face in an annoying way. He had a headache. For a moment he was drifting between consciousness and a nice dream he wouldn’t be able to remember, a second later though, reality was kicking in and his headache got worse. He got up on his bed abruptly. Bruce was already up, doing pushups on the ground. Clark stared for a bit at the naked muscular torso in front of him until he remembered what had alarmed him.

“Bruce, there’s something wrong.”

“Good morning to you too. There’s plenty wrong these days.” Bruce stopped his pushups and laid on the floor looking at Clark. As soon as he saw the man’s face, he changed his posture. “What’s wrong?”

“I have a headache.”

“Me too” Bruce said deciding Clark’s worrying wasn’t that worrying and starting with his abdominals.

“Bruce, c’mon! I don’t get headaches” Bruce stopped his workout again. “Not ever.”

“Oh, never?”

“Only sometimes with kryptonite or when I lose my powers.” Clark said scratching an itch in his arm.

“Please tell me you didn’t lose your powers, not when we’re stuck in 1868.” Bruce went over to him, sitting in the bed in front of Clark.

“I don’t know I…” Clark noticed what he was doing to his arm and looked at it. Some kind of bug bite there. “Oh no” he showed it to Bruce. “Did you curse me, Bruce Wayne? I have a bedbug bite!”

“What the hell? Did you lose _all_ of your powers?” Bruce took Clarks arm in his hand twisting for a better look at the bite. “How is that possible?”

“Normally it’s kryptonite, but this doesn’t feel like it. I’ve been feeling a little off ever since I got here but I thought it was just… I don’t know, sadness?” Bruce still had a hand on Clark’s arm and Clark was _very_ aware of that. “I feel drained, like I used up all my powers.”

 “But if you stay today in the sun, can’t you _recharge_?” Bruce finally put his hand down.

“That’s the thing, the sun is feeling a bit weird in my skin, I think the problem _is_ the sun.”

“I could make some analyses if you want.” Bruce offered.

“That would be good, yes.”

“But first we have to find a lawyer in this city and get some kind of breakfast.”

 

They went downstairs to the saloon. It was a bit different than those in western movies, a lot less fancier. Millie was coming out of the kitchen with a coffee bottle and a tray with scrambled eggs. She put them in the biggest table and sat down. In the corner Drunk Ted was passed out.

“Oh hi, boys!” She called them. “Come, sit down.”

They sat at the table and got a plate to put the eggs.

“Good morning!” Clark greeted her.

“Good morning, Millie, looking good today.” Bruce said charmingly and Millie giggled like a school girl.

The woman did look good, she seemed to be in her late thirties, had a tanned skin and dark hair. Her brown eyes were sweet and welcoming, like a mother’s eyes. Clark had seen Bruce flirt with her since when they first entered the saloon. Could it be that Bruce had an interest in that woman? _I mean it is Bruce Wayne_ , Clark thought, but at the same time he couldn’t imagine Batman having a sex life.

“Oh, Darrius!” She said giving Bruce a mock slap on his hands. Clark’s headache had only gotten worse.

“So, where’s Mr. Fowl?” Clark asked cutting them off. Mr. Fowl was Millie’s husband that usually didn’t stay around the saloon very much.

“Oh, he’s probably coming down any second… A late sleeper that one.” As if on call Mr. Fowl appeared at the top of the stairs. “There he is! Mr. Fowl, I’ve made eggs, would you like anything else?”

The man sat on the table, his stern face was nothing like Millie’s tender one.

“Nothing else, thank you, Mrs. Fowl.” He waited as Millie served him. He looked like the mockery of a character from a British novel. No smiles, almost no hair, a lordly attitude and a dark purple vest. Clark couldn’t believe those two were a couple.

The man looked between Clark and Bruce seeming suspicious.

“So, how are you finding Redbear?” Millie asked cutting the silence.

“We haven’t seen much, but it’s a nice town.” Clark said.

“I’d say I’m quite enjoying it.” Bruce said giving an almost obscene look to Millie while drinking his coffee. Both Millie and Clark were flustered. _Had Bruce lost his mind? Millie’s husband was right there._

“And what is the boy doing here?” Mr. Fowl growled finally noticing Ted in the corner. The man got up and went to the sink, getting a cup of water and throwing it at the boy.

“Oh, Mr. Fowl, don’t do that!”

“Get out!” Mr. Fowl screamed at a frightened Ted that quickly got his coat and left. “Mrs. Fowl, you have to say no to this boy.”

“Oh, Mr. Fowl, let that poor boy be! He was doing no harm to anyone.”

“He was doing harm to himself, Mrs. Fowl!” The man went back to eating his eggs. “It’ll scare the clientele away!”

“You’ll scare them away.”

Clark felt like watching his parents fight, Bruce on his side was looking rather amused.

Mr. Fowl got up. “If I scare them away then I should leave.” The man left the saloon furiously.

“Sorry about that” Millie said. “You know how the British are. ”

“I sure do, Mrs. Fowl.” Bruce said with a smile, Clark rolled his eyes, there he was, flirting again.

“Oh, stop that, Darrius! I’m Millie.”

Clark had finished his breakfast and just watched the flirting, hating Bruce for that. Bruce took his time with the breakfast, seemingly forgetting Clark’s problem and its urgency, even with Clark scratching his arm nonstop.

 Finally, Bruce finished eating and they got out of there.

“What was that?” Clark asked as soon as they got out of the building.

“What?” Bruce pretended to be innocent.

“All that flirting with Millie _, in front of her husband_!”

“What? You jealous now, Clark?”

“I’m not jealous!” They took a turn from the main street. “If we get kicked out because you can’t keep it in your pants, I’m going to…” Clark paused not knowing what to add.

“You’re going to do what, Clark?”

“I’m going to kick your ass.”

“Hah! I’d like to see you try.” Bruce seemed to notice that he was poking a wound. “I’ll wait till you have your powers back, of course, I’m a gentleman.”

“Yeah, a gentleman that flirts with married woman.”

“If you want I’ll flirt with her husband too.” To that Clark didn’t have a response. Would Bruce flirt with a man? Would Batman? Clark had never thought of that as a possibility. “Might even get a threesome.”

“Gross!” Clark squirmed with the thought of Mr. Fowl in a threesome. “You’d be in a threesome with Mr. Fowl?”

“Who knows?” Bruce brushed it off. Clark could tell that Bruce was mocking him.


	12. Chapter 12

The conversation they’d had with the lawyer was uneventful, they did end up hiring the guy and he assured the whole process would be over in a month and they could get the keys to the property this week still. When they got back to the saloon Drunk Ted was there as always, they had seen him so often even without talking that they’d started to greet the boy.

They went up to their room, Clark still itching a lot from the bite and the heat. He wasn’t used to being sweaty and the sweat made the itching worse.

“Why aren’t you itching? Didn’t you get bitten?” Clark asked when Bruce threw himself in the bed.

“I did.” Bruce murmured with his voice muffled by the pillow.

“How are you not itching all over?”

“I’m not a little bitch.”

“No, you’re just an asshole.”

“You’re the one that insisted on sleeping here.” Bruce finally lifted his face from the pillow to speak clearly.

“And you’re the one that cursed me!”

“I curse you again, Clark Kent!”

“Oh, c’mon, now I’ll probably just die! Or get sent to the 1500s. Or be eaten by bedbugs.”

Bruce stood on his elbow. “How are you so calm about this? I mean you’re the most powered person I know and you don’t seem that panicked about it.”

“What?! I’m sticking to the plan! You said you’d have a look at it after breakfast and the lawyer, I was just waiting. Now, can you please remove your curse?”

“Superstitious, huh?” Bruce arched his eyebrows. “I bless you, Clark Kent.”

“You didn’t remove it but okay. Now, when are we going to try to get my powers back?”

“Has this ever happened before?”

“Not like this. But I have experienced some power changes due to the Sun’s waves. There have been some power losses because of the Sun, usually it lasts only a few days.”

“Ok, we need to go back to the ship to see it then.” Bruce got up from the bed.

 

When they entered the ship Bruce got to the computers. “Listen, we’re pretty much blind in this ship, no satellites, nothing to help analyze the Sun. But what we do have is some infrared and ultraviolet cameras, a radio telescope and… History. I don’t know if we’ll have anything conclusive, but it’s most likely just a sun phase, some solar flares, some change in the magnetic fields or in the radiation.”

“Ok, so now we wait?” Clark leaned against the table in the middle of the room.

“Now you wait, I’ll see what the computer has on solar activities in the 1800s.” Bruce turned to the computer and started looking at many pages at once.

“There were recorded solar activities in the 1800s? I mean, they could see solar flares?”’

“It was first seen in 1859, almost a decade ago and we’ve been observing solar activities since the XVIII century.”

“Oh, okay, know-it-all.”

“I’m not a know-it-all, I’m just reading the files on solar activities, Clark, if you want to join you might also become a know-it-all.”

“ _You_ saying that you’re not a know-it-all? Ha!” Clark took a sit next to Bruce.

“Oh no.” Bruce said scamming through the pages faster now.

“What is it?” Clark asked.

“It’s not good. Not good at all.”

“What?” Clark tried reading something in the computer to get what Bruce was talking about.

“Solar flares were first observed in 1859 because in that year occurred the Carrington Event, one of the largest geomagnetic storms on record.”

“So? It was nine years ago, this couldn’t possibly be it.”

“I think it is, we’re in the same solar cycle and there’s another solar storm coming up in two years. The thing is, we still have five years in this solar cycle 10.”

“What? So during this whole cycle I won’t have my powers?” Clark laid his head on the table, his life was a train wreck.

“I don’t know exactly how it works. I don’t know exactly how _your powers_ work, but I think these two solar storms are influencing the whole cycle and affecting the Sun’s radiation in a way you can’t absorb it.”

“Wow, your curse really stuck.”

“I’m sorry, Superman.” Bruce put a hand in his back and patted him, it sent a weird shiver down Clark’s spine. He raised his head to look at Bruce.

“Could we make a lamp like the ones we have at the Watchtower?”

Bruce thought for a second. “We’d need a lot of resources. We could try, but I don’t think this is important now. We should focus more on going back.”

“Bruce, what if we’re stuck here?” Clark wanted to cry again. Rao, this sun was really affecting him! He was feeling sorry for himself all the time. “What if this is it? I’m stuck without my powers, won’t be able to even freeze myself till the future, won’t marry Lois, won’t save the Earth from the Dokris…”

“We’re going to go back, I promise.” Bruce was looking in his eyes, trying to calm him down but Clark could see that Bruce wasn’t calm either.

“What if we don’t?”

“If we don’t, we don’t. We stay here, live as the Monroe brothers, try to get over what we lost and be ready to go back at any moment. But it always work out Clark, we have the world’s greatest superheroes on our side, probably looking for us. It will be okay, it always is.”

“Wow, you’re usually the pessimistic one. Look at me now.” Clark gave a small laugh.

“I’m the realistic one, and realistically speaking I believe we’re getting out of this one.”

Clark could see that Bruce was lying, but he knew it was just to make him feel better. In an impulsive move, he held Bruce’s hand.

“Thank you, you’re being a good friend.”

“We need to stick together in this one, Clark.”

“I know, but you’re being a better person to me now than you ever were back then.”

“I’m not.” Bruce pulled his hands away from Clark and went back to looking at the computer.

Clark laughed. “You are. You hated me.”

“I didn’t.” Bruce seemed to have closed himself off.

“You did! Admit it!”

“I didn’t _hate_ you.”

“Well, _I_ hated you.”

Bruce looked at him offended.

“Why would you hate me?”

“Well, _Batman_ , because _you_ hated _me_.”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “Whatever, I didn’t.”

“Whatever, you did.” Clark got up dramatically and went away just to get the last word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Carrington Event is real, the rest is just made up for the story.


	13. Chapter 13

Clark was in the kitchen when Bruce came in.

“Hey” Bruce unfolded one of the stools and sat on it. “I’m thinking of sleeping here tonight.”

“Whining about the bedbugs again?” Clark smiled.

“You’re the one that has been itching all day.” Bruce got a bite from the half of Clark’s sandwich that was still in the plate. “I just don’t want to go back there and be eaten alive by the bugs when we have a bed here.”

“So you’ll stay here while I, the one who’s been scratching all day, go back to sleep with the bugs?”

“You can sleep wherever you want, I’m sleeping here.”

“Why don’t you let me have the bed?” Clark pouted.

“Because I’m the one having it.”

“But you cursed _me_. I should have it.”

“I said it first. And yesterday you were insisting on sleeping in the saloon.”

Clark gave up and finished his sandwich.

“If you want, we can share it.” Bruce offered after a moment of silence.

“I don’t want to share.”

“Okay, princess, you can sleep on the ground then. I’ll even be so kind as to provide you with Egyptian sheet mats. There’s the infirmary’s beds also, if they’ll be to your liking.”

“Well, thank you, my lord, how kind.” Clark rolled his eyes and Bruce left the kitchen with a smile.

When Clark went to the room to get a mattress, Bruce was laying in the double bed with a remote control in his hand and flicking through something in the TV on the wall.

“Is there anything we can watch?” Clark asked looking at the TV that was currently showing the cameras outside the ship.

“There are the security cameras. And three movies that Flash put on the League’s computer and thought I didn’t notice. I’m trying to see if they're still here.”

Clark laughed and sat on the bed. “What movies?”

“If I remember correctly it’s Frozen, The Incredibles and The Conjuring.”

“Nice, can we watch The Incredibles?” Clark took off his shoes and made himself comfortable on the bed.

“We can, if I find the files, Flash hid them somewhere and I can’t remember the folder, or maybe he changed it.”

Clark saw as Bruce accessed the ship’s files through the TV, going to the Offline Archives folder, then to USA Archives, then Star City, then Public Information. Bruce smiled. “Yeah, it’s still here.”

“In Star City? Why not Central city?” Clark wondered out loud.

“He probably tried to hide it as the Arrow.” Bruce shook his head smiling and clicked on Jill’s Pizzeria Floor Plans and it started playing Frozen. Bruce went back and picked Great Hall Information and The Incredibles started.

Bruce adjusted himself like Clark had, sitting with his back on the headboard. A few minutes into the movie, Clark started sliding down to a lying position. The bed wasn’t great, but it was way better than the one at Millie’s, way more comfortable, spacious, cleaner and without bedbugs. It smelled a bit like lavender. It was only natural that he’d give in to his tired eyes and close them for a bit.

 

Clark woke up feeling cold and looked at the room in confusion. For a moment he couldn’t remember where he was, he had never seen that room before. Then, looking around he saw the TV and remembered. He’d fallen asleep while watching the movie.

The room was dark, only some led lights from the electronics illuminated it and, without his powers, Clark couldn’t see much. He saw that on the other side of the bed there was a figure. _Bruce_ , he thought. He got down the covers and fell asleep again.

He woke up to a raspy voice calling him. When he opened his eyes he smiled seeing Bruce’s face so close to his. “Clark, get up, we have to go back to Millie’s before they wake up.”

“Uhum” Clark agreed, turning around and falling back asleep.

“I’m serious, Kent, come on!” Bruce put his hands on Clark’s shoulders and shook it gently. Clark only gave a half-asleep noise. Bruce shook Clark harder and the man finally woke up.

“What is it?” He said with a sleepy voice.

“We need to go, put your shoes.” Bruce walked away from the room.

Clark put on his shoes and went to the kitchen. There was some freshly brewed coffee. Clark took a mug and a stool and sat with Bruce. Taking a sip of the coffee he almost spat the drink.

“What is this?” Bruce looked up from what he was writing on his phone. “It’s horrible!”

“It’s space coffee.” Bruce said, drinking from his mug as if it wasn’t the worst beverage in the world and going back to his phone.

“What are you writing?”

“Just documenting my time in the 1800s.”

“A travel journal? I should get one too. I mean it’s not often that my life gets completely ruined in just a matter of days.”

“Completely ruined?” Bruce laughed. “We’ll be home in a few days, stop being dramatic.”

“Or we can be stranded here forever and we’ll never be home again and my life will stay like this: completely ruined.”

“If you could stop being dramatic and finish your coffee, that would be great, we need to get back to Millie’s.” Bruce finished his own coffee in a sip.

Clark tried, but he couldn’t, it was awful. He spilled it in the sink and got the mugs to the dishwasher. “Let’s go then.” He finally said.

 

They got in through the window of the room. Without his powers that was a terrible task for Clark, with Bruce’s help he managed it, regretting a little his decision to sleep in the ship. Not a lot though, because he was feeling way better rested than the night before.

The sun hadn’t even come up when they made it to the room. Clark laid on his bed while Bruce went on to take off his shirt, change his pants and start on his workouts. Clark watched him, admiring his backside and wondering off thinking about the stories behind those many scars. “Do you think I should workout too?” He asked after a while.

Bruce finished the series he was doing before answering. “Do you want to?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never worked out.”

“Maybe we should train, I think learning some moves would be better for you than working out.” Bruce suggested, going back to his exercises.

Clark laid back thinking about it. Before he noticed he was drifting off again.


	14. Chapter 14

He was dancing with Lois. Her luscious hair curled on her shoulders, her smell was like home, her smile was big and happy and it made Clark smile too. It was their wedding day. _Good. They made it back in time._ They danced away as if nobody was watching. But somebody was, Clark noticed with his peripheral vision Bruce Wayne sitting watching them. Everyone else seemed to disappear from Clark’s vision as Bruce got up and made his way to him.

When Bruce extended a hand as an invite it seemed only natural that Clark would take it. They were dancing around, swirling, laughing. It was ridiculous and Clark loved it. When they stopped spinning, they were in Clark’s apartment, in his bedroom. Bruce was in his usual training attire – shirtless and in a baggy pant. The man smiled dangerously “I think you should learn some moves.”

Clark liked that idea, feeling his powers running through him he waited for Bruce to make a move. The man ran at him, jumping aiming for his head. Clark simply used Bruce’s own impulse to easily flip him backwards into the bed. Clark had his flight back and managed to easily flip too, standing on top of Bruce with a smile.

The man under him fidgeted trying to get out unsuccessfully. Then those eyes stared at him. Icy blue eyes that were often so emotionless but right now were flaming with _something_. "Go ahead" said a raspy breathy voice in his ear. Clark felt a shiver down his spine and was now very much aware of the weight of Bruce on top of him. Clark tried to get away but he couldn’t, the man was straddling him and holding his hands in place over his head. It was like all his power had vanished again.

“Please, Bruce” He begged but it came out more of a moan. He didn’t know what he was begging for. Bruce lowered himself and Clark just hoped that he couldn’t tell that Clark was hard on his briefs. As if on cue, Bruce moved, pressing himself against Clark. “Please” It was almost inaudible, just a huff of air coming from his lungs at what Bruce was doing to him. It was wrong, it was so wrong. He was a married man. And when Bruce thrusted against him again, he knew he liked it so much _because_ it was wrong.

Bruce lowered himself even more. Clark couldn’t take his eyes off his plump lips even when he tried to focus on those icy eyes filled with desire. “Beg for it”. The man said harshly and when Clark opened his mouth to plead, Bruce was kissing him. At first it was fireworks inside of Clark, but really fast all the fireworks died out and all the lust turned into guilt. It fell on him so strongly that he wanted to cry when he saw Lois in front of his eyes and then he was waking up to a room filled by sunlight.

Bruce was nowhere to be seen and he was thankful to be alone because he needed to take care of the situation in his pants.

He wondered how could he look in Bruce’s eyes now. What was that dream? He knew he found Bruce Wayne attractive but it wasn’t like _that_. He wasn’t _gay_ , any man that looked at Bruce Wayne could tell that he was a nice-looking guy. Maybe it just meant something else to his subconscious. Maybe it just meant that his subconscious felt like the life he should have had with Lois was being replaced with the life he was stuck having with Bruce in 1868. Nothing more.

He breathed in accepting that that was the only explanation and trying to ignore what kissing dream-Bruce had made him feel.

He changed his clothes and then he heard a small knock on the door. The person didn’t bother to wait for a response and just opened it. It was Bruce. Looking at him was a pang in Clark’s inside that Clark attributed to guilt.

“Hey, Millie’s asking if you’re not coming down for breakfast. She’s about to take off the table.” Bruce said and Clark could tell he was in a good mood.

Clark didn’t feel particularly hungry, but still he knew he hadn’t eaten in a while. “Yeah, I’m coming.”


	15. Chapter 15

The first time they had slept together it didn’t feel weird. Now, though, it was a very different situation for Clark, even if it looked the same for Bruce. Clark wanted a little bit of distance to clear his head of the thoughts he’d been having all day after the dream.

When he went to take the mat in the bedroom Bruce raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were okay sleeping here.”

“I was, but I think it gives us more space if we don’t sleep together. We’re quite big.”

Bruce laughed. “Don’t talk to me again about how  _big_  you are.” Clark got red. “I mean, okay, that’s great for me but your mat is really tiny.”

“I’m going to put some of them together.”

“That sounds terrible but do what you have to do, I’m going to sleep only on my side in case you have second thoughts.” Bruce laid down on the bed with the remote control in his hands. “Don’t want to watch a movie?”

“Not today.” Clark blurted as he got out of the bedroom carrying his mats. He tried setting them on the main room’s floor. They were uneven.

He took the rest of his things and still tried to make a bed out of it. When he was done and laid his head to rest it felt like lying on the ground. He had slept in the ground already, it wasn’t that bad, he could manage it. But going back to the real bed seemed like a nice option now. It wasn't like he had _feelings_ for Bruce. It wasn't infidelity to dream about someone and they were so close these past few days - close like they'd never been before - it was only normal to dream about that.

Bruce was handsome and Clark was sure lots of straight guys could agree with him on that, but he wasn't Superman's type. Superman was the american dream man and he was heterosexual and in love with Lois Lane, his fiancee, the love of his life. Finding Bruce good looking was just being truthful to the obvious, nothing to do with actual attraction. Being in the same bed as Bruce, his friend, his fake brother, his real bro and work colleague wasn't infidelity, it wouldn't make Clark feel anything because Clark couldn't feel something for a man.

But then he remembered what he _had_ felt. Was that normal too? Fireworks while kissing your friend in a dream. He closed his eyes and he could picture again Bruce on top of him, feel his weight, want to press their bodies together.

Clark got up, he couldn't stand laying there anymore. He went to the infirmary and laid on one of the two beds. They weren't particularly large - quite small actually. But they were clean and way more comfortable than the mats.

As he laid there uncomfortably, he wondered again if it would be that bad to go back to the bed. It wasn’t  _wrong_  to do that. Bruce had no ill intentions towards him. And even if Clark could admit a little bit of unwanted attraction towards Bruce, he wouldn't act on it, he wasn't that kind of guy. Those feeling were only born out of stress and closeness and they'd eventually go away as if they never happened. If they were born out of closeness though, staying away from Bruce was the best he could do.

He thought about Lois again, he missed her, it was clear. They used to live and work together and now Bruce was the one that was with him 24/7. The feelings weren't real, they were just created by his subconscious at the absence of Lois. He sighed. Even the infirmary's bed felt awful and the ambiance of a hospital was even worse. He breathed in deeply. He was a man and he knew how to behave around people decently. He'd never do anything to hurt Lois. He had nothing to worry.

Decidedly, he got his pillow and went back to the room. Bruce was watching Frozen, something he thought he’d never see Batman do.

“I see you’ve decided for the bed, couldn’t  _let it go_?” Bruce said as he sat down on the mattress.

Clark hit Bruce with the pillow. “Oh my, can you only make dad jokes?”

“I don’t make dad jokes, you must be thinking of someone Elsa.” Bruce had a stupid smile on his face as Clark grunted and turned his back on him dramatically.

“You’re terrible, you know that? Terrible!” Clark said without turning around.

“Thank you, sweetie,  _Daddy_  loves you too.” Bruce said in an extremely sarcastic voice and still Clark had to fight with his mind not to focus on the 'loves you' or on the _daddy_ part. It was pointless, Clark was already wondering if with all that money that the billionaire had if he’d ever been someone’s sugar daddy. It was definitely not above Bruce Wayne’s reputation.

“Goodnight, Bruce.” Clark said, closing his eyes, trying to block out the sounds of the animation and the intrusive thoughts on his mind.

“Goodnight.” Bruce said simply, lowering the volume on the TV. Clark half expected a mock pet name but was thankful for not having that to fuel his dreams and thoughts.


End file.
